Biden's Debate Finale: An Echo From Abroad

By MAUREEN DOWD, Special to the New York Times

Published: September 12, 1987

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11—
The Neil Kinnock commercial did not lead to electoral success last May in Britain, but the 10-minute spot of the Labor Party leader's passionate speeches, against a cool soundtrack of Brahms, raised his approval rating by 19 points and became an instant classic.

On this side of the Atlantic, many Presidential campaign strategists of both parties greatly admired the way it portrayed Mr. Kinnock, who subsequently lost to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as a man of character. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a Democratic hopeful, was particularly taken with it.

So taken, in fact, that he lifted Mr. Kinnock's closing speech with phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact for his own closing speech at a debate at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 23 - without crediting Mr. Kinnock.

In the commercial, the Briton began, ''Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?'' Then pointing to his wife in the audience, he continued: ''Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?''

Senator Biden began his remarks by saying the ideas had come to him spontaneously on the way to the debate. ''I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?'' he said. Then, pointing to his wife, he continued: ''Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?''

In his speech, Mr. Kinnock, an orator of great eloquence, rhetorically asked why his ancestors, Welsh coal miners, did not get ahead as fast as he. ''Did they lack talent?'' he asked, in his lilting rhythm. ''Those people who could sing and play and recite and write poetry? Those people who could make wonderful beautiful things with their hands? Those people who could dream dreams, see visions? Why didn't they get it? Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football? Weak?''

Senator Biden's Irish relations, it would seem, were similar, though they seemed to stay underground longer.

''Those same people who read poetry and wrote poetry and taught me how to sing verse?'' continued Mr. Biden, whose father was a Chevrolet dealer in Wilmington. ''Is it because they didn't work hard? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines of Northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours?''

Of course, the football Mr. Biden's forebears played may not have been the same game that the British refer to as football, but the Biden clan apparently was stymied by the same social forces that kept down the Kinnocks. How Both Men Concluded

As Mr. Kinnock concluded, clenching both fists: ''Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.''

As Mr. Biden concluded, clenching one fist: ''No, it's not because they weren't as smart. It's not because they didn't work as hard. It's because they didn't have a platform upon which to stand.''

William Schneider, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who was in London for the British elections this summer, brought back a tape of the commercial and gave one to his friend, Senator Biden, and to people in a couple of other campaigns.

At various campaign appearances last month, the Senator talked admiringly about Mr. Kinnock's themes and incorporated phrases and concepts after first crediting the Briton. But, in his closing remarks at the Iowa State Fair forum, he did not mention the Labor leader, nor did he some days later in an interview when he recounted the positive response. Biden Elated at Iowa Debate

''I feel real good about that Iowa debate,'' he said. ''I could tell when I was doing my close - that whole audience was absolute dead hushed silence. You can tell when you have it all. And the reason it worked there was, I was the last one. And I decided, I have no close. I didn't have a closing. I'm walking in and they're saying, 'You're going to this debate,' and I said, 'I don't like this stuff you've written for me.' ''It fit to do that there.'' Advisers to the candidate said that, when it was pointed out to him after the debate that he had followed the Kinnock speech very closely, he was surprised and said he had not been aware of it. They stressed that the Senator had been immersed in difficult preparation for the hearings on Judge Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, an important test for Mr. Biden's political future.

''He was not trying to put something over,'' said one adviser. ''He's under a huge amount of pressure. He didn't even know what he said. He was just on automatic pilot.''

But Mr. Biden's borrowing raises questions about how much a candidate can adapt someone else's language and thoughts, whether he remembers to give credit or not. 'Speeches Are Not Copyrighted'

''As far as I know, political speeches are not copyrighted,'' said Mr. Schneider, who gave Mr. Biden the tape. ''What he said was close to the Kinnock rhetoric, but on the other hand, it wasn't untrue, was it?''

Others disagree, however, and think that - at the very least - Mr. Biden should not have indicated that he thought of the ideas himself on the way to the debate.

Thomas Donilon, Mr. Biden's campaign aide, said that the Senator was traveling and did not care to comment on the similarities in the two speeches.

''To the degree it wasn't attributed, it was an oversight or inadvertent,'' said Mr. Donilon. Mr. Biden's aides said the Senator had been deeply influenced by the Kinnock commercial - seeing a mirror image in the Labor leader's youth and attractiveness and passionate oratory, and his message of compassion and building on past generations.

''The Kinnock message was really something that struck a chord with him,'' said Mr. Donilon. ''He thought Kinnock was saying it well and it was something that struck him as consistent with his political message his whole political career, which has been based on a campaign for middle-class values.'' Comment by Biden Aide

Mr. Donilon noted that Mr. Biden - who has been working to overhaul his message, which earlier included themes and words reminiscent of John F. Kennedy, as his campaign got off to a shaky start - had credited various ideas he took from Mr. Kinnock at several other campaign appearances. But, at those times, Mr. Biden was talking more generally about Mr. Kinnock's concept of building a party that could be a platform for the middle class to improve their lives and the lives of their children.

Asked which of Mr. Biden's relatives had been coal miners, Mr. Donilon said the Senator had not necessarily been referring to his own relatives but had been talking about the ''people that his ancestors grew up with in the Scranton region, and in general the people of that region were coal miners.''

Told that Mr. Biden had used the phrase, ''my ancestors,'' Mr. Donilon said, ''Evidently he had a great-grandfather who worked in a mining company.'' Asked the name of the man, the company and the sort of job he held, Mr. Donilon pronounced himself at a loss.